CH 4: Solanthus

[Jerrard]

"Oh great." Erastin frowns as he sees the Gnomes. "Just what we need."

He keeps his eye on Galenye and checks his blades. "Stay away, don't touch anything, the Gnomes are harmless but things tend to go wrong."

[Breila]

Karathos stops in his tracks, eyeing the strange thing with interest. "Does that thing move with magic?" he asks no one in particular. His hight makes it possible to look at it from all angles, even from above, and he does so.

[HorizonsDream]

Galenye stares at the contraption for a few moments before she starts laughing. "Is that a...fire breathing gnome?" she asks.

[LittleLuna]

"I can't say whether it's magic or not, nor for it is needed," Jinali adds "but I think this isn't a agricultural machine. In my opinion this is a war machine... I don't want to think about for what they need one..."

[Nuke]

"Karathos, the gnomes are akin to my folk, the machine is run by fire and water. The belching steam is what powers that contraption. As odd as it looks, it can be very effective, provided it doesn't self-destruct."

[Breila]

"Ah." Karathos scratches his head, just behind the horns. Plainly, he didn't understand anything the dwarf said, so he just stands there and lets the machine pass.

[JadedDM]

As the party passes by, the gnomes spot them and quickly leap into activity. They shout to each other in their own tongue at a rapid rate, making it impossible to understand their words even if the party did speak gnomish.

They leap into the 'death machine' and begin stoking its fires to greater heat. The machine rumbles ominously and rolls slowly forward, gathering speed as it approaches the party. It's heading right toward them! The gnomes inside that aren't operating the device itself arm themselves with strange and exotic weapons the party has never seen before. The party acts with haste to avoid the smoking behemoth lest it runs them over.

After it passes by then, it suddenly emits a huge steamy belch and trundles from its path. Moments later, the gnomes abandon ship, leaping away from it in great haste. As they race away, the boiler on the machine explodes with a loud bang, leaving a dented and ripped hull on the machine.

[Nuke]

Dodging out of the way, Targin is not too concerned about the Gnomes intent.

After the explosion, all he says is "See what I mean?"

[Jerrard]

Glad he had kept his distance Erastin stifles a little smile, ushering to the others he moves forward, "Perhaps we should help them? It would be the right thing to do."

[HorizonsDream]

"Um, they just tried to attack us Erastin," Galenye points out. "They failed horribly, as expected, but they did try all the same. I'm a little curious as to why."

[Jerrard]

"So am I. Hence the reason I offered to help, perhaps they mistook us for someone else?"

[HorizonsDream]

Galenye gives a small nod to Erastin. "Lead the way," she says with a smile.

[Jerrard]

Hand on his sword hilt Jerrard walks towards the Gnomes.

[Nuke]

"Remember Erastin, it's what is 'tween yer ears that counts. Nothin' foolish now."

Targin stands back, having no interest in helping, on the contrary, he readies his bow.

[Breila]

Without a word, Karathos follows Erastin a few paces behind, hands on the axe handles, clearly backing him up.